Fight Spam (UCE)

by The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail

July 1, 2002

Ed. Note: Are you tired of getting your e-mail account(s) bombarded with Spam (UCE, or Unsolicited Commercial E-mail)? Are you tired of seeing your own e-mail address faked by the spammers so that it looks like you did send the UCE yourself? Are you tired of pyramid schemes, Nigerian frauds, penis enlargement, breast enlargement, herbal Viagra, get-rich-doing-nothing, and all the scams under the sky? Are you tired of paying for it all (you do!)? Then, fight back!

* Progress of Senate anti-spam bill

Over a year ago, Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) introduced S.630, the CAN
SPAM Act of 2001. This bill would require UCE to have a valid return
address to facilitate consumers' removal from spam lists. It would
place enforcement in the hands of the Federal Trade Commission, and
state Attorneys General. It would also permit Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) to enforce violations, up to $10 per illegal spam.
It would preempt any stricter state anti-spam laws.

The Senate Commerce Committee considered the bill on May 17th, and
reported it out largely unchanged. It's not now scheduled for further
action in the Senate.

CAUCE has always opposed this bill, since we believe it would lead to
more spam, not less. When South Korea passed a similar opt-out law
last year, spam from Korea soon increased by a factor of 10.

Our April 2001 press release goes into more detail about the problems
with S.630:

We're pleased that the Congress is looking at spam issues again, and
hope that in the future we can help them create an effective bill that
the entire Internet community can support.

- --------------------------------------------------------------

* European Union bans spam

GLOBAL INTERNET COMMUNITY APPLAUDS EUROPEAN ANTI-SPAM VOTE

May 31, 2002 - The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail
(CAUCE), EuroCAUCE, CAUCE India, CAUCE Canada and the Coalition Against
Unsolicited Bulk E-Mail, Australia (CAUBE.au) today applauded the decision
by the European Parliament to protect European Internet users from the
practice of unsolicited e-mail advertisements. Yesterday's vote will turn
Europe into a virtual "spam-free zone" after the formal adoption of the
directive, making it illegal to send unsolicited e-mail, text message or
other similar advertisements to individuals with whom companies do not
have a preexisting business relationship.

"This is a tremendous day for European Internet users," said EuroCAUCE
Chairman George Mills. "We are extremely pleased that the European
Parliament has listened to the citizens of its member countries and added
the right to be left alone by spammers to its efforts to protect the
privacy of Europeans."

While six European Union member countries had already formalized "opt-in"
in their national laws and regulations, yesterday's vote should turn all
of Europe into a spam-free zone by the end of 2003.

"Unfortunately, the rest of the world's Internet-using countries,
including the United States, now lag behind Europe in their protection
of Internet users," said CAUCE Chairman Scott Hazen Mueller. "This is
a tremendous first step, but the rest of the world now needs to follow
Europe's lead and unite behind protection of Internet users and
network owners from abusive and costly unsolicited e-mail
advertising."

"This decision is the direct result of Internet users throughout the
European Union standing up for their rights, and Members of the
European Parliament listening to their constituents," said Mills. "Our
members and our volunteers performed an integral part of this process,
translating, lobbying and educating their representatives."

(CAUCE, The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email is an ad hoc, all volunteer organization, created by Netizens to advocate for a legislative solution to the problem of UCE (aka "spam"). The real SPAM, on the other hand, is a fine product by Hormel Foods. SPAM is a registered trademark of Hormel Foods, LLC, for luncheon meat.)